The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for joining flat supplementary products provided with an adhesive to printed products.
A method and an apparatus of this type are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,679 (EP 0 675 062 B1). This gives a description of a transport apparatus by means of which supplementary products, such as labels, goods samples or xe2x80x9cpost-itxe2x80x9d(copyright) products can be joined to printed products which are stored in a processing device.
For this purpose, the supplementary products, which are present in stacked form, are gripped individually by the transport device by means of transport clamps that are fixed to carrying arms and steering elements in such a way that they can be controlled, transported and discharged to printed products which, in the processing device, are collected in straddling form on stable wall elements driven in circulation or are inserted into stable pick-up parts that are driven in circulation. At the time of transfer, the supplementary products are pressed by means of the transport clamps against the printed products held by the wall elements, and are joined to them. In order that supplementary products provided with adhesive can be joined correctly to printed products in this way, skilful control of the transport clamps is necessary. The processing device which is needed in addition to the transport device has to be constructed in a stable manner and synchronized with the transport device. Within the processing flow of the printed products, two additional transfers also result between the processing device and transport devices by means of which printed products are fed to the processing device and removed from the latter again.
The present invention is therefore based on the object of providing a method and an apparatus for joining supplementary products to printed products which is constructed simply and permits the printed products to be delivered with a low outlay.
In order to join the supplementary products to the printed products, the invention provides a number of holding elements that are driven on a circulating path about a first axis, by means of which supplementary products fed by a first conveyor or present on a stack are gripped individually at a pick-up point and, after an appropriate rotation about the first axis, are joined to printed products, which are transported in a suspended manner by a second conveyor, at a discharge point. For this purpose, a freely suspended printed product is supported by the apparatus according to the invention by means of a supporting element and, by means of a holding element arranged on the opposite side of the printed product to the supporting element, is joined to a supplementary product at an envisaged point.
The significant factor here is that the holding of the printed product when it is being joined to a supplementary product is not done by the conveyor provided to convey the printed products, nor by the processing device provided for the intermediate storage of the printed products, but by supporting elements, preferably holding elements, belonging to the apparatus according to the invention.
The apparatus according to the invention can therefore be used in existing conveying systems at points at which the printed products are transported in a freely suspended manner, without being intermediately stored in a processing device. The apparatus can therefore be used flexibly in existing or new systems without additional investments. The matching support needed for the application of the supplementary products is in this case provided by the supporting elements belonging to the apparatus according to the invention.
As opposed to the apparatus disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,476 (EP 0 666 186 A1), by means of which the outer part of printed products transported in a suspended manner are provided with an adhesive on mutually opposite edges and thereby can be sealed off, the apparatus according to the invention permits supplementary products, for example product samples, to be fixed at any desired point outside or inside an opened printed product.